


Harry Potter Short Works

by parenthetic (renaissance)



Series: Short Work Collections [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ficlet Collection, Multi, Other: See Story Notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-31 06:06:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12126177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renaissance/pseuds/parenthetic
Summary: A collection of Harry Potter ficlets, posted on tumblr between 2014-16. See individual chapter titles for ship/character focus and other notes.





	1. Anthony/Zacharias + post-match celebrations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For a prompt from Morgan on tumblr. 9/3/15

Usually when they win, everyone gets caught up in the moment, cheering and initiating the sort of physical contact that Zacharias has made an art out of avoiding. They together, pulling each other together, showing how well they work as a cohesive unit, all that teamwork bullshit, all that Hufflepuff loyalty.

Not this time.

Once again, it’s bloody Potter’s fault, since he had to get himself injured and ruin the match. It was a win for Hufflepuff, sure—but it was an easy win. There’s no joy in an easy win, and it shows on their faces and in the slump of their shoulders as they head to the changing room.

“Why do I get the feeling that Quidditch was fun before he was involved,” Megan says, putting down her broom and untying her hair.

“I’m with you there,” Zacharias says.

There’s a feeling in the air that doesn’t need to be there. Just once, before he graduates, Zacharias wants to have the old atmosphere back, exactly how it was when they had Cedric at the helm. Megan is a good captain, but they’re just not winning the way they used to.

“I know,” Megan says. “One day… one day I’ll sweep you off your feet after a match, Smith.”

“Please,” he says, “you couldn’t lift me if you tried.”

Megan just laughs. “I’ll catch a shower. See you back in the common room?”

“Yeah,” Zacharias says.

He takes his time getting changed, because the mood outside is bound to be even worse. Although, Anthony’s waiting for him, which counts for something.

“You’re all moping,” Anthony says. “Maybe, don’t.”

“I’m not moping,” Zacharias says. “I’d be celebrating, if it were more, er, socially acceptable.”

Anthony hums. “So, you’re saying that it’s not acceptable to be happy when other people are sad?”

“Well—”

“Zach, look, let’s pretend for a moment that moral relativism doesn’t exist,” Anthony says. “You won the game, which is a positive, but Harry’s injured, which is a negative, and because people view one of these events as being of more importance than the other, the negative cancels out the positive. Right?”

“Go back to Ravenclaw,” Zacharias says.

Anthony just smiles. “Good, good,” he says. “So, let’s put moral relativism back into the equation. Even though people consider the negative to be more negative than the positive is positive, that doesn’t change the fact that the positive happened, and is, well, positive. So I think you’re absolutely allowed to celebrate.”

“After what happened when I was commentating—”

“What, you’re scared? That Ginny’s going to retaliate again?”

Sometimes, Zacharias thinks, Anthony get a bit  _too_  close to the truth.

“Yeah,” Zacharias says. “Yeah, I’m scared. I got a fucking  _concussion_ , Anthony, so no, I  _don’t_  want to go through that again—”

“And I just want you to express yourself and be happy!” Anthony snaps. He deflates quickly, though. “I mean, you know. You always used to be so cheery after Quidditch matches.”

“I know,” Zacharias says. “I never let the rest of them sweep me off my feet, though.”

“I don’t think you’re aware of the romantic connotations of that phrase,” Anthony says.

Zacharias sighs. “So I guess you’re going to tell me?”

“Hmm,” Anthony says, glancing up and down the corridor, “how about I show you instead?”


	2. Blaise/Zacharias + Quidditch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For a prompt from an anonymous user on tumblr. 26/9/15

It’s early morning and foggy as hell but because the Slytherin team have all but booked out the pitch to spite Gryffindor, this is the only time the Hufflepuff team could get. It’s all well and good to piss off a Gryffindor every now and then, but everyone else is caught as collateral. And as a result, when Zacharias makes his way to the changing rooms he’s damp and grumpy and just about ready to punch the first person who so much as looks at him the wrong way—that is to say, looks at him at all.

Of course, Blaise Zabini is haunting the corridors to the changing rooms like the ghost he is, so determined to be a wafty aesthete that he has transcended mortal concerns entirely and is smirking at Zacharias like he knows all the secrets of the whole fucking universe. Zacharias, masochistic as he is, peels off from his team and pauses in front of Blaise. Sometimes he wishes he was shorter, just so he could yank Blaise to eye-level by the tie and get his useless head out of the clouds.

“Good practice?” Blaise asks airily. “How was it, using the pitch this early in the morning?”

Sometimes, Zacharias forgets he has the advantage of height. He still grabs Blaise’s tie, though, when he goes in for the kill. When they break apart, several breathless moments later, Blaise looks no more shaken than before, and Zacharias still feels damp, and grumpy, but less inclined to punch someone than before.

“Fucking terrible,” he says.

Blaise just shrugs. “You’ll get used to it.”


	3. Dean/Seamus + reflections on the war

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For a prompt from Carole on tumblr: "things you said under the stars." 17/4/16

A year. A whole bloody year. It doesn’t feel like a year. It feels like a hundred lifetimes squeezed into a collection of moments that, when put together, don’t make any more sense than the pounding in Seamus’ chest. He knows he had it better. He  _knows_. But Dean is right there and lit up by the full moon and suddenly everything else seems stupid and fake and like this is the only thing that came out the other end of that awful year, all that matters.

Dean is looking at him, too. Like there’s a lot he could say. Like the rubble inside Hogwarts’ pristine walls behind them isn’t there at all. Dean’s changed—he’s older, taller, built of something stronger than stone.  _Hotter_ , Seamus’ brain supplies, unprompted. And he wonders when  _that_  started.

Now, the Battle is over. The War has been waged. Anyone else might consider it a victory. A new beginning. Or whatever. But Seamus doesn’t know where to start. He didn’t know what qualified as a beginning.

It’s a cool night—or is it morning already?—and in Nowhere, Scotland, you can see the stars as clear as anything. If Seamus had paid attention in Astronomy and not doodled all over Dean’s star chart, he might know what the constellations were called. But the romance is lost on him. There is no rush of emotion when Dean slides his hand across the grass, just the tips of his fingers brushing against Seamus’ wrist. No lights in the sky, no no sudden realisations. Because it’s been there all the time—just, a long time coming.

Dean is the one to break the silence. The castle is buzzing with noise. Outside, under the stars, it’s a still summer.

“So,” he says, a beginning, “here’s what happened last year—”


	4. Percy + resignation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For a prompt from deternot on tumblr: "He knew going into it that it would be a beautiful, terrible mistake." 21/5/16

He knew going into it that it would be a beautiful, terrible mistake. But when had that ever stopped him? He knew it the moment he left the Ministry that evening, the moment he Apparated, the moment he stepped into the Hog’s Head, into the Room of Requirement. He knew, as everything rebuilt itself around him and then fell apart again, crumbling like the ancient walls of Hogwarts, that this was the culmination of every mistake he had ever made. But he also knew that, if nothing else, he would go down fighting.

“Hello Minister,” Percy said, “did I mention I’m resigning?”


	5. Lee + breaking the rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For a prompt from an anonymous user on tumblr: "This was definitely breaking at least twenty-three different laws, somewhere." 28/5/16

This was definitely breaking at least twenty-three different laws, somewhere. Maybe even the International Statute of Secrecy—oh, that would be a fun one. In the time between, Lee itemises the laws he night be breaking: trespass, squatting, unlawful use of premises. His goal is twenty-three, although it’s an arbitrary number, simple, indivisible. These numbers, counting between the notches on the dial of his ham radio, are the things he uses to get himself through each day; small mercies, digressions of thought away from the destructive path of remembering the reality around him. He switches on the microphone—seventeen, unregistered blood status, nineteen, unlicensed broadcasting, twenty-three, dissemination of classified information, and— _welcome to Potterwatch_ , he begins.

 


	6. Anthony/Zacharias + small prompts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A one-sentence prompt (Quidditch), from eleos on tumblr, and a three-sentence prompt (first date), from an anonymous tumblr user. Paired because they're both so short. Date unknown.

On reflection, Anthony thinks, Quidditch is a  _lot_  more interesting when  _he’s_  playing.

 

* * *

 

 

“Nervous?” Anthony asked, folding his menu shut and putting it down next to his plate with the air of someone who had been to posh Muggle restaurants all his life and was just as at ease here as in the Great Hall.  
  
“Of course not,” Zacharias said, mimicking Anthony’s action and closing his menu.  
  
“Of course,” Anthony said, and under the table, he stepped on Zacharias’ foot, stopping his leg from bouncing up and down.


End file.
